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oil painting
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plein air

While it was a lousy summer for tomatoes, something in the air made the pumpkins and winter squash particularly prolific, and we find ourselves with a workshop full of the stuff. What we are convinced is a flood of trouble may actually be a sea of opportunity...

The winners of our Self-Portrait Cover Competition are featured in the September issue of American Artist, and they share advice about how to paint the figure and how to maintain a successful painting practice. When we asked David Tanner, the winner of...

In any painting, the biggest expenditure for the artist is the frame that goes around the finished piece. If it's a watercolor painting, there's the matting, the glazing, and the frame holding it all together; for the oil on canvas or acrylic...

Under the Awning by Joaquin Sorolla, oil painting, 1910. "There is nothing truer than truth. All the mistakes committed by great artists are due to their having separated themselves from truth, believing that their imagination is stronger...There...

Sometimes in making a small study for a larger oil painting, an artist
will sketch in certain areas very loosely. It's almost as if she says
to herself, "and there's some other stuff that fills in this area of
the composition, but I'll think about that later." With the set of
small paintings I was doing recently, I wanted to push myself to answer
those questions earlier, and allow myself more time to critically
consider the elements I include, before committing to the time and
scale of a large work.

During the spring of 2008, 13 women painters from California, Nevada, and Utah gathered together in the Yosemite Valley to paint the national park for a week. Yosemite on Canvas: 13 Western Artists Paint the Park Through November 29 Knowlton Gallery Lodi...

Utah artist David Koch likes to bring elements of his state’s pioneer past into his computer-aided compositions. by Linda S. Price Crossing The Sweetwater 2002, oil on linen, 55 x 44. Collection Walt and Katie Gasser. Until David Koch won a competition...

Three painting friends exchanged photographs and then produced paintings of the same 15 subjects in an experiment designed to teach them about different approaches, challenge them to push beyond their comfort zone, and allow them to work on a common painting...

In this online exclusive gallery, view more examples of plein air landscapes by Kevin Sanders, one of the artist featured in the September 2008 issue of American Artist. Ponte Vecchio 2006, oil, 18 x 24. All artwork this gallery private collection, unless...

Six top artists combined observation, investigation, and invention to respond to the encompassing reality of the landscape. They will be exhibiting their sketches and studio paintings together for the first time this summer. by M. Stephen Doherty The...

For almost 20 years, Jimmy Sanders has set specific goals for his art education, the types of paintings he creates, and the projects he undertakes. “Goals are dreams with deadlines,” he says. “They are important to realist painters who...

For me, the goal of landscape painting is to paint stirring images that engage and inspire viewers, and this is more likely to happen when I use information from a variety of sources. by Steve Armes Sketch for Sierra Blanca 2005, oil, 8 x 10. All artwork...

In the April 2008 issue of American Artist, we discussed how Christine Lafuente's still lifes and plein air landscapes are oriented toward achieving a color harmony that captures the play of light across the forms. In this online exclusive gallery...

Michael Albrechtsen achieves a stronger impression of both the emotional and physical aspects of a landscape by standing back from his easel and thinking carefully about what he sees. by M. Stephen Doherty Cool and Wet 2007, oil, 40 x 30. Collection the...